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Thousands of low-income Coloradans reliant on public assistance could get a free cellphone under a plan before the state Public Utilities Commission.

If approved, the plan by TracFone Wireless in Miami would make Colorado the 17th state it has settled into with free cell service for the indigent, a form of wireless welfare that proponents say taps into one of the last untapped markets for the telecom technology.

"Our hope is to have it up and running by September," said Jose Fuentes, TracFone's director of government relations. "Historically, it's a very underutilized service, and we'd like that to change."

The program is a twist on Lifeline, a long-standing federal subsidy that provides low-income families with a break on their land-line telephone bill in order to ensure emergency 911 service.

In Colorado, it's called LITAP — the Low Income Telephone Assistance Program — and is available to anyone receiving aid from any of six welfare funds: Colorado Works Assistance (TANF), Supplemental Security Income, LEAP, Aid to Needy Disabled, the Old Age Pension Fund and Aid to the Blind. ...

Thanks to Obama the Community Organizer in Chief. And since we know that nothing is free, this means that you and I are giving free cell phones to these losers. That's what community organizers call free.

Obama-if you're being run out of town, get out in front and pretend that it's a parade!!!

Thanks to Obama the Community Organizer in Chief. And since we know that nothing is free, this means that you and I are giving free cell phones to these losers. That's what community organizers call free.

I can see the value if it's part of a job placement program. If you don't have a phone, you don't have a way for prospective employers to contact you, you don't have a way to set interviews, and so on. But it has to be tied to a job program, and they should be pay as you go phones, so that the government only gives them $10 phone cards at a time (and stops giving them out after either the client gets a job or when has failed to do so for whatever time period is deemed appropriate).

Also, I see value in this for foster parents, especially foster parents of kids with special medical needs. Although, in the special needs cases, we generally pay them a large enough daily rate to cover the cost of a cell phone.

I can see the value if it's part of a job placement program. If you don't have a phone, you don't have a way for prospective employers to contact you, you don't have a way to set interviews, and so on. But it has to be tied to a job program, and they should be pay as you go phones, so that the government only gives them $10 phone cards at a time (and stops giving them out after either the client gets a job or when has failed to do so for whatever time period is deemed appropriate).

Also, I see value in this for foster parents, especially foster parents of kids with special medical needs. Although, in the special needs cases, we generally pay them a large enough daily rate to cover the cost of a cell phone.